Verizon Launches Aggressive Anti-iPhone Ads

The smart phone industry's attempts to unseat the Apple iPhone in the United States have been about as unsuccessful as, say, Apple's similarly high-profile anti-Windows ads—but there's a new sheriff in wireless town. And this time, he might actually have the fire power to take on the industry's coolest and fastest-growing smart phone.

Sure, we've seen it all before. But this past week, Verizon Wireless began running a series of aggressive TV advertisements aimed at ridiculing missing or poorly designed features in the supposedly perfect iPhone. And although the ads don't go into too many specifics about the new Verizon phone, they do corroborate recent rumors that the company is on the cusp of shipping a phone based on Google's Android platform.

"iDon't have a real keyboard," the first ad text reads, playing off of Apple's incessant use of "i" words such as iPhone, iPod, and iMac, and alluding to the top complaint about the iPhone. "iDon't run simultaneous apps. iDon't take 5-megapixel pictures. iDon't customize. iDon't run widgets. iDon't allow open development. iDon't take pictures in the dark. iDon't have interchangeable batteries." The 30-second spot concludes with, "Everything iDon't ... Droid does."

Droid, of course, is the name of Verizon's first Android-based phone, and it's shipping in mid-November. This news is notable for a number of reasons.

First, while many analysts feel that it is Android—and not Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry, Nokia, or Microsoft's Windows Mobile—that can make a serious run at the iPhone, the platform has never really taken off yet because it's been stuck on the low-quality T-Mobile network. Verizon, however, is widely acknowledged as having the superior wireless network in the United States, and by supporting Android so aggressively, Verizon is positioning the platform for success.

Second, this ad strongly deflates rumors of the iPhone coming to Verizon. Of course, in the rumor-happy world of Apple fanatics, truth and fantasy are frequently interchangeable. This is the section of the web that predicted an Apple Tablet in September, the launch of the Beatles catalog on iTunes at least seven times, and—most recently—promised that the launch of the widely lauded Windows 7 would, in fact, lead to stronger-than-ever sales of the Mac.

As it turns out, the "iDon't" ads aren't Verizon's first attack on the iPhone. Earlier this month, the company began running a hilarious (and true) ad depicting the difference between the size of its best-in-market network coverage and that of AT&T, the exclusive US carrier for the iPhone. Those ads riffed on Apple's infamous "there's an app for that" iPhone tagline, noting that "there's a map for that," and then graphically showing the difference between Verizon and AT&T coverage in the United States. As an iPhone user, former Verizon customer, and frequent traveler, I can attest to the difference: AT&T's network is seriously lacking in both scope and strength.

The difference between the two networks can't be overstated. Whereas AT&T has struggled to keep up with the lofty data demands of iPhone users, Verizon's vastly superior network is an untapped goldmine for smart phone users. The problem is that Verizon, to date, hasn't had a smart phone good enough to pull users away from their beloved iPhones. The company seems to be betting big that Droid is that phone.

According to the ad, the Verizon Droid debuts in mid-November. It will be the first Android-based phone to run the Android 2.0 software, which adds further enhancements and functionality over the current generation designs.

Discuss this Article 25

@lotsa:
"after the 5,684th time I saw the ads"
To be fair, basically every new ad is like that.
Open Development:
I don't know how many members of the general populous care, but there are many geeks who do care. And the Apple Store is starting to see developers get fed up and leave.
Customize:
Have to go through a rather hacky process just to create a ringtone from legally owned sound files. Can't customize the sounds for things such as new text messages or email.
Touch keyboard:
I do miss the tactile feel, but after a couple weeks I don't think this is a big deal for anyone who owns the phone. I think that line is aimed at Blackberry or WinMo owners to keep them from switching, not at current iPhone owners.
Simultaneous apps:
Let's say I'm sitting shotgun and I'm using my GPS app. I'm getting bored and I want to check my email. Gotta quit the GPS app to do that.
Or my personal pain point - I love the ESPN Radio app. Can't have that running and do anything else on the phone.
Widgets:
This one bugs me and is something I miss quite a bit from my WinMo device - a real home page. It's nice to be able to turn on the phone and see a list of appointments, or waiting messages, or even basic weather information.

Boy Genius just posted some shots of the Droid this morning, and it looks like it is going to be real nice. Unlike the usual super-conservative manner that Verizon usually operates in, they seem to have let Moto and Google work very closely on the device, and won't be "Verizon-izing" it

"iDon't take 5-megapixel pictures"
Why would any phone need to take 5 megapixel pictures? Less than 3 megapixels is all you need for 4"x6" photos printed at 300 dpi. You only need more megapixels if you need 8"x10" or larger prints, and even in that case your picture quality is going to be limited more by the relatively small sensor size and relatively poor quality lens of a smart phone than the number of pixels the sensor has. Go ahead and try using that 5 megapixel camera in the Verizon phone to make 8"x10" prints and see how happy you are with the picture quality.

@infiniteloop
Like I've said many times before, I'm not a Windows fan, nor am I a Mac fan. If it works for me, and I like it, I'll stick with it. "Smash forecasts" to your hearts content, I still wouldn't touch a MAC in the workplace. At home, it'd be hard to do as well because fo the cost, but if they came up with something like Media Center, I;'d definitely take a look. (Don't say AppleTV either--it sucks). If you're coming at this from a profitablilty standpoint, i couldn't care less. And the "record profits" bit? record for who? Apple? Good for them! Don't care, personally, and _really_ don't care business-wise. Nothign they have compels me to try it out in a business setting. Yet. Maybe some day they will, and I look forward to that day, but for now, forget it.

"Ultimately, I'm reminded that you don't win by being against something "
Doesn't that describe Apples's own advertising campaign for the Mac? They tell you nothng at all about theire own product and only attack Windows. Nice to see them on the receiving end for a change.

"Riiiight. Because diversification is working for Microsoft"
'Diversification is the key"......... when it works.
You guys have target fixation. MS proves that diversification is important. They can afford to take a risk, flub them, spend billions, and they still earn (after taxes) 3x more money than your beloved company (15B compared to 5B annually).
Apple's present P/E ratio assumes they are twice as expensive as other much more stable firms with a significantly more stable portfolio. Apple is only worth that much because people hope they continue to dominate -- the share price can't continue to increase without growth, because it's really only an 80B company when priced according to economic principles. If someone legitimately makes a better product that's sexier than what they have, you'll see 100B of market cap vanish overnight.
Take a look at GE for example. They made a phenomenal flub of epic proportions on GE Capital but they still make 13B/yr after taxes and employ 325,000 people. Their share price was hit, and the GE Capital folks aren't doing well, but everything else had some insulation. If GE was only GE capital, the entire company would have vanished.
There are mistakes, as in, "lets dump some of our business", and there are mistakes as in, "the whole company is now under water" because we make a handful of products and one isn't popular anymore.
Seriously, I'm not saying these things because I want them to fail, rather they need better diversification so they're a sound company 100 years from now. But fans are totally blind to reality. You can search wininfo from 3-4 years ago and I made posts saying Apple needed to diversify and merge the iPod and a phone. But *all* the Apple loyalists showed up here and said (including lotsa), "It will never happen because they said so, it's not their core market!" Umm, right now it's their biggest market. And they need a lot more of them to be insulated from consumer whims.

"Investors will thank them because it will maintain their market-cap."
Riiiight. Because diversification is working for Microsoft:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pNJFZtinpKY/Stp-GJmr7AI/AAAAAAAAFsY/7Yvi5iBXRgE/s1600-h/msft+stock.JPG
...and not for Apple:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pNJFZtinpKY/Stp_H7_AW-I/AAAAAAAAFsg/CZgF3xW7Ofs/s1600-h/apple+10+years.JPG
Who are the investors thanking again?

"I doubt anyone in Cupertino is really shaking in their boots just yet, though."
Well, they could be... Here's the problem, they have only 4 products. I can't name any other company on the planet worth almost 200B that has fundamentally only 4 things to sell (more w/slight permutations). When you're that size, you're usually a lot more diversified. And they've done themselves a huge service and disservice simultaneously. Tying phone and MP3 player together was completely inevitable, but it can harm their music sales dominance if a phone maker can usurp them.
It was only 5 years ago that Motorola had a lock on the wireless market with the RAZR. If you go back and read the press, almost everyone else was throwing in the towel in regards to competing with Mot.
Diversification is the key... It's required for a stable retirement portfolio, it also is required for mature companies. It sounds crazy, but they should get fully into CE (TVs, receivers, cable/satellite DVRs, speakers) and leverage the brand. Investors will thank them because it will maintain their market-cap.

"I swear, Paul can't type the word Apple unless it is conjoined with "fanatics", "bigots", or "zealots".
"
Paul also can't type an article or blog post without you chiming in because you apparently don't have much of a life outside of defending Apple every time you think someone commits an injustice against them. Good Lord, get outside every once in a while.

My first thought was, "These ads are brilliant".
Then, after the 5,684th time I saw the ads, I thought:
"Who in the general public cares about open development?". "What does 'iDon't customize' really mean?". "Is the touch keyboard really still an issue?". "What simultaneous apps do I really want to run other than music--which the iPhone already does?". "Isn't this just another spreadsheet comparison that doesn't look at a product as a more than the sum of its parts?".
Ultimately, I'm reminded that you don't win by being against something *cough, John Kerry, cough*. Verizon can get in bed with Google if they want, but she's a fickle lover, as Apple found out. We get it. Verizon is against the iPhone. Interestingly enough, they're also against the Blackberry Curve ("paperweight mode") when it's running on a competitor's network.
Don't get me wrong (or, as our President would say, "let me be perfectly clear..."), I want the Android phones to succeed spectacularly, because a rising tide raises all ships. We'll see. I doubt anyone in Cupertino is really shaking in their boots just yet, though.

Paul's the one who starts the needless, childish, snarky comments -- one's that are often unsubstantiated. 'Course, he's a master click-baiter.
" ... in the rumor-happy world of Apple fanatics, truth and fantasy are frequently interchangeable."
Yeah, sure Paul. No one creditable (e.g., Gruber) thought the tablet was coming in September. The Beatles rumor was plausible because the date of the Beatle's CDs release matched the date of the Apple's Sept. event, so people thought, "Hmm ... could be." And that last one was from Apple itself so you are really reaching for your rumor trifecta.
Oh, here is another rumor we missed:
"The iPhone maker shocked investors Monday, reporting a fourth-quarter earnings leap of more than 47% from the year-ago quarter. Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) shares rose $11.65, or 6.14%, to $201.51 in after-hours trading." -- Forbes.
By comparison read the recent NY Times article, "Forecast for Microsoft: Partly Cloudy" -- according to the times it has before it a "long and winding course toward irrelevance."

@infiniteloop
You really do live up to your name...
It's not about the profitability of any one or even all of those devices/solutions - it's about keeping people in the Microsoft ecosystem. If Microsoft keeps people in the Microsoft ecosystem - they win. You only have to see how successful Office is on Mac to understand that fact. Mac represents such a small user base and yet MS still creates an Mac version of Office. Why? Because Microsoft knows that when it hits a home run (i.e. Windows 7) - it's really not that big a leap to get people back.
What you don't understand (or seem incapable of getting into your head) is that Apple exists in it's own little world, with it's own life support system, it's own way of speaking, it's own style and so forth - and that's great and that's wonderful - congratulations to them for living on a planet by themselves. Back here on planet Earth, though, we all think that Microsoft is the standard. And it's not an illusion - it's reality. Microsoft is the benchmark by which all else is judged. OSX - It's either better or worse than Vista or 7. iPod - better or worse than Zune.
Whilst ever Apple products are compared to Microsoft/PC offerings - Apple IS a failure. Apple has become the younger brother of a more successful elder sibling.
Sorry little brother..you can't play with the big boys yet...

The problem I see it that Verizon like to charge for everything. They like to turn off features so they can charge for them.
GPS is free with AT&T, with Verizon you pay and use their app. Never mind that the data is sitting on the phone either way.
AT&T can do data and voice at the same time. Verizon it's one or the other. Verizon also counts tethering a separate from data. More charges.
The problem with the Verizon network is how little you can access for $100/mo.

lotsa,
"Ultimately, I'm reminded that you don't win by being against something *cough, John Kerry, cough*. Verizon can get in bed with Google if they want, but she's a fickle lover, as Apple found out. We get it. Verizon is against the iPhone. Interestingly enough, they're also against the Blackberry Curve ("paperweight mode") when it's running on a competitor's network."
Oh really? What about the Switcher Ads? Those seem very anti-Windows. Playing on stereo types that are no longer exists. Many will argue the problems featured in the Switcher ads do not apply to Windows Vista or Windows 7. Also, we don't actually see a Macintosh unless at the very end of a commercial for 10 seconds. We never actually see an Apple product doing what it is supposed to do. You just get Justin Long pretending he's a computer. Yet you don't get anywhere with "being against something." Hmmm. I guess that explains why Microsoft's marketshare has just rebounded worldwide from 88% back up to 92.77%
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8
Moving on. Good for Verizon. Why not take on the iPhone for its shortcomings? Show what it does wrong and come out with a phone that does it right? Negative ads work, if you have a positive solution. Everyone remembers in the 1990's, the famous "Genesis does, you can't do this on Nintendo ads." They worked pretty good for Sega.
Its just proof that the "Mac fans" cannot take any single bit of criticism of Apple. I don't know if these guys just don't have a life or are that thin skinned that they can't just shut up and actually listen to a critique. Well, I think Walt Mossberg is right that if Apple doesn't watch it, Microsoft can come roaring back and put Apple back in 1997 position. It has happened before and we do know how easily history repeats itself.
I don't think this time, Microsoft will bailout Apple again.

"Apple fanatics"
I swear, Paul can't type the word Apple unless it is conjoined with "fanatics", "bigots", or "zealots".
Of course, as Leo Laporte notes on Macbreak weekly,
"This just in from Windows apologist Paul Thurrott."

Xbox 360: got it, love it, worth every penny.
Zune: would be interested in trying it, but I'm happy with my iPod Touch right now.
WinMo: Had one, hated it, love my Blackberry Tour. Would be willing to try the iPhone and any other touch-like device, if it can do what my BlackBerry can.
Plays for Sure: Oh well.
Zune Marketplace: not owning a Zune, I couldn't comment, but the Marketplace on Xbox live is great!
Media Center PC's: Have had them since XP. They completely and totally beat out any PVR/DVR that I've had.
"You get the picture?" Sure do--your arguments fail again.

Great article. I think I will be retiring my 3Gs in the near future for an Android phone. The main problem is that in Canada (where I live) we only have two models, the Dream and the Magic.
Hopefully more will be coming soon.
ps. @Chuckb84, if the shoe fits.